To develop or operate application programs of the same system, considered is the environment to prepare a platform for supporting development and operation of application programs. A platform is an information processing system in which a plurality of information processing devices work together to offer, to application programs, the functionality to support development and operation of application programs. For example, there is a platform which supports development and operation of game programs as application programs (hereinafter, simply referred to as games) executed by mobile terminals. In each game, a function of managing information of users (hereinafter, referred to as user information) who use the game is important. In these circumstances, if a platform provides the functionality to manage user information (hereinafter, referred to as a user information management function), game developers need not redundantly develop a program for implementing the same function. Furthermore, when a platform offers the functionality to access a database (hereinafter, referred to as a database function) to games, the platform is enabled to store therein data necessary for games, which may be beneficial to game developers in terms of a reduction in the game operational cost.
Since there are many game developers and furthermore the game developer and the platform developer are not always the same, it must be considered that the platform and game run on information processing devices that are physically separated. Therefore, the above-mentioned user information management function and database function need to be usable through a network. A web service is an example of a means to enable those functions to be used through a network. A platform defines and releases a web service API that is an application programming interface (API) necessary to use the user information management function or database function through a web service. Each game can use such functions through a network in a manner of using open web service APIs. Definition information (an API name, an argument, and a return value) of a web service API and a service release address of the web service API are described in a web services description language (WSDL) file. The WSDL can increase development efficiency and interoperability because it can clearly and strictly define the service release address and definition information of an API. For example, when a WSDL file exists, it is possible to automatically build a program that performs transmission and reception of messages necessary for use of a web service API.
The platform can earn income by preparing special web service APIs (hereinafter, referred to as special APIs), separately from web service APIs (hereinafter, referred to as basic APIs) for use of basic functions such as a user information management function and a database function. For example, in a case where a platform prepares special APIs such as an API that is fast accessible to a database and an API that is accessible to statistical data regarding users' game utilization results that are accumulated on the platform side, the platform can charge rates to the usage of the special APIs. Game developers having a goal of improving the quality of games or of developing games that use statistical data may use the special APIs by signing a contract for the usage of special APIs with the platform developer and paying a usage fee. In that case, the platform developer may want to release definition information of special APIs only to the game developers who have signed a contract. This is because the public release of definition information of special APIs to game developers who have not signed a contract leads to two disadvantages for the platform: first, the excessive processing load occurs in the platform due to access of games, developed by unauthorized developers, to the special API; and second, what data the platform has collected and stored is unintentionally disclosed through the definition information of APIs. For example, the fact that the platform has collected statistical data or the fact that the statistical data includes information such as total game utilization hours for each user may become disclosed. In other words, there is a concern that the clearness and strictness of WSDL may do harms rather than do goods.
In order to eliminate such disadvantages, there is offered a technique which creates, for each game, a WSDL file describing only definition information of APIs that are authorized to use the game.
In a case where a WSDL file is created for each game for limited release, any of game developers is not permitted to secondarily disclose or leak the WSDL file because the disadvantages set forth above are unavoidable if permitted. Therefore, platforms are desirably required to employ a mechanism capable of specifying the leakage origin when the secondary disclosure or leakage of the WSDL file occurs. The mechanism that can specify the leakage origin acts as a deterrent to the leakage of WSDL and enables the leakage origin to take legal responsibilities. However, in the related art methods, no consideration was given to a circumstance in which the leakage of a WSDL file occurred, and furthermore it was difficult to specify the leakage origin when a WSDL file was leaked.